Literary Magazines in the Form of Postcards--What a Hoot!

In this day and age of Twitter feeds and emails, receiving something via snail mail seems very old-fashioned. We all still get the endless sale fliers and junk mail promises, but personal mail seems to have stopped. And yet, there is still something endearing (at least to this middle-aged reviewer) about receiving a piece of personal mail. Postcards rank right up there with some of the best things to find in the mailbox as they remind one of vacations, fun times, and those "wish you were here" sayings you now see on t-shirts. But who sends postcards these days? With HOOT, anyone can.

As their website states: "HOOT is a postcard. A very nice-looking one. With writing on it! It is also a little more complicated than that. It is also: a brief, displayable, shareable literary magazine. The idea is:

-to have stories and poems on a postcard, so that they can be displayed and shared easily. Stick it on the fridge! Tuck it in your husband’s/wife’s briefcase or nephew’s bookbag!...

-for people to have a literary magazine that they can both afford to subscribe to and have time to read. Never again will you be able to claim that you don’t have time to read current literature! Each post card will have fewer than two “Tweets.” Except for it’s not digital!

-to have a literary magazine that is excellent in a pure, gimmick-free way."

Published once a month, HOOT accepts previously unpublished fiction, non-fiction and poetry as well as book reviews of independent and small press books. However, each piece must be fewer than 150 words. The editors combine the writer's brief thoughts with intriguing graphics that catch the eye and force you to read the print.

For instance, issue one contains a close-up photograph of a partially eaten chicken burger in a piece of printed wax paper. On this, the editors have superimposed a small image of a woman in a long ball gown and off to one side, a man in a white business shirt, black pants and tie doing what appears to be a chicken dance. The title of the fiction piece printed on top of this imagery is "Are We the Dining Dead?" by J. Bradley.

Another issue contains a photograph of two carrots on a deep greenish gray background, with the text in all caps, running down the side of the card for the poem, "Monastery." Other issues use graphics to help convey the meaning of the subject matter such as a woman, naked, curled with her knees tucked into her arms, forehead against knees, twirling down the page for the poem "Swim 'til You Find Me" by Annie Smith. The accompanying text reads:

nights are darker/in these muddy waters

bejeweled leaves crystallize/a solace over me

the crocodile/ leaves us uneasy

Quirky. Odd. Amusing. Thought-provoking. These are the words that come to mind as this reader looks through the first six issues. These fragments of verse and fiction cover relationships, returning to a favorite city, small towns filled with contentment, circus life and sex, love and longings, and growing old and enfeebled. In short bursts, these cards pack a punch that much longer pieces sometimes fail to deliver.

As an added bonus, each card offers the reader (on the back where one writes a message and address) a brief offbeat statement about the author. For instance, Annie Smith "likes her friends sassy, her men classy, and takes her eggs poached (never scrambled)." John Steen "rides a teal Peugeot bike and always wears a helmet."

HOOT also offers readers an online version where they print an additional one to four authors a month. To encourage people to find, read and subscribe to this attention-grabbing version of a literary magazine, the editors hide HOOTs around various cities as "guerilla literature" and also offer free on-line and in person writing workshops.

Offered at $2 per postcard or $14 for a year's subscription, it seems a small price to pay for such a rich and unusual experience. The world needs a jolt of literature that doesn't come via a thick paperbound volume of the best of the best. HOOT fills a niche and makes poetry, fiction and nonfiction accessible from the postal department to the personal recipient and everyone in between who happens to catch a glimpse of the card. These are one kind of postcard that everyone should be reading as they are short, sassy and visually-appealing. Try to make a similar claim with a text message or tweet.